The Beer Thread

Yada wrote:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/04/blind-tasting-116-of-the-best-american-ipas-we-hav.html?p=3

oh yeah . . . this is the beer thread.  sor,ry

Yada wrote:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/04/blind-tasting-116-of-the-best-american-ipas-we-hav.html?p=3

this is the best list of IPA rankings i've ever seen.

Carlos wrote:

Yada wrote:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/04/blind-tasting-116-of-the-best-american-ipas-we-hav.html?p=3

this is the best list of IPA rankings i've ever seen.

Pretty good… a few notable beers missing and a few odd rankings, but not too shabby.

in case folks are looking for some recommendations:

FW Pivo Pils: the IPA drinker's pilsner.  it's from CA so of course it's hoppy.  i could see myself easily crushing a 6-pack of this on a hot summer afternoon.

FW Pale 31: should be regarded as the gold standard of american pale ales.

Heavy Seas Double Cannon: i'm a fan of Loose Cannon so i had high hopes for this, unfortunately they were not met.  this might not have been the freshest bottle (best before was Aug 20, assuming 6 month that means it was bottled in late Feb).  i'll consider giving it another chance if i come across a fresher bottle, but even at a month and a half old i would expect more hop character in a DIPA.

FW has recently expanded its distribution to the DC area so expect to see more Pivo, Pale 31 and the like on shelves.

Yada wrote:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/04/blind-tasting-116-of-the-best-american-ipas-we-hav.html?p=3

can't hate too much on that list. 

that list does a couple of things really well:
-highlights the fact that good-to-great IPAs are abundant
-ranks a wonderful and popular IPA very low, showing that the system of ranking IPAs is inherently flawed
-has an unbiased approach to geographical beer regions
-has 116 IPAs ranked… an absurd amount.

i showed up to the alpha king challenge in 2011 at GABF and drank about 50 or so of the 100 IPAs in the challenge.  after about 10, they all start to taste the same, so i'm impressed with their rules.

i went and bought some breakside flagship IPA at lunch because of the list.  also, i have a bresnner package coming with jai alai within the next week so i'm excited to finally try that.

Carlos wrote:
that list does a couple of things really well:
(…)
-ranks a wonderful and popular IPA very low, showing that the system of ranking IPAs is inherently flawed

one list completely invalidates rankings based on thousands of votes? 

sweetcell wrote:

Carlos wrote:
that list does a couple of things really well:
(…)
-ranks a wonderful and popular IPA very low, showing that the system of ranking IPAs is inherently flawed

one list completely invalidates rankings based on thousands of votes? 

i can see how you read it like that, but i'm saying the opposite. thousands of data points (i.e., untappd ratings, BA reviews) trumps some list that rates a beer style that is so heavily dependent on one crop and fades in flavor/aroma in an insane time frame.

Anyone crushing these guys yet?

So good.

Yada wrote:
Anyone crushing these guys yet?

So good.

I hope to try that one. Westbrook Gose is the best American gose I've had so far.

Going to Charleston in June and now plan to check out WestBrook's brewery as I love a good gose

Space wrote:

Yada wrote:
Anyone crushing these guys yet?

So good.

I hope to try that one. Westbrook Gose is the best American gose I've had so far.

I unfortunately assumed these would be an easy find at any six pack shop but I've hopped into three and none of them had it in stock. I was drinking it on tap last night though and it was great.

Edit: Just found three four packs.

i've been meaning to try the kirsch gose.  sounds pretty tasty.

i've got a ton of homebrew that is just coming online so it's tough to justify buying anything at the moment.

So I'm 7 batches in on the homebrewing of 1 gallon batches
By far my favorite was the Chocolate Maple Porter (OG 1.070 FG  1.025)

close second was the Warrior DIPA (OG 1.065 FG 1.000)

Just bottled a black barrel ale and added one of these to the fermenter

Galaxy Hut had that Kirsch Gose on tap last night. I enjoyed two goblets of it. Very nice.

Picked up the Blood Orange Gose from Anderson Valley the other day.  Good stuff.  Was just down in SC recently - had the Westbrook IPA, but not the gose.  Besides that and the Kirsch what else should a gose novice be checking out?

Sidehatch wrote:
So I'm 7 batches in on the homebrewing of 1 gallon batches

fun hobby, innit? ;D

Sidehatch wrote:
close second was the Warrior DIPA (OG 1.065 FG 1.000)

jeebus, nice attenuation… although i might have asked for a bit more body.  how was the hoppiness?  warrior makes for a great bittering hop, but everything i've read says that it's a sub-par flavor/aroma hop.

sweetcell wrote:

Sidehatch wrote:
So I'm 7 batches in on the homebrewing of 1 gallon batches

fun hobby, innit? ;D

Sidehatch wrote:
close second was the Warrior DIPA (OG 1.065 FG 1.000)

jeebus, nice attenuation… although i might have asked for a bit more body.  how was the hoppiness?  warrior makes for a great bittering hop, but everything i've read says that it's a sub-par flavor/aroma hop.

I really liked the flavor of the finished product, I'm a little bias as I made it with my own bare hands
some of the other batches the body/bubbles have been way off and I've been using carbonation drops now and think that has helped

and it is fun, although little time consuming. 
Now that the weather is nice…those sunday mornings are usually dedicated to long bike rides

I think in the next few months I may go up to brewing 3 gallon batches.
I'm interested in using the spent grains to make some food next

Nuke wrote:
Picked up the Blood Orange Gose from Anderson Valley the other day.  Good stuff.  Was just down in SC recently - had the Westbrook IPA, but not the gose.  Besides that and the Kirsch what else should a gose novice be checking out?

I think Westbrook only cans theirs from April or May-October or something like that. Probably why you missed it.

Anderson Valley also cans THe Kimmie, Yink and Holy Gose for the six months that it's not doing the Blood Orange.

Destihl cans a really good one (almost as good as Westbrook but not quite), but I don't think they ship here yet.

Off Color Troublesome is ok and can sometimes be found in VA and DC, but tastes more like a hefeweizen. Not very tart at all.

Union Craft just announced they're going to start canning theirs in May, but imo it's not in the same league as the others that have been mentioned.

One of the best I've had is Ritterguts, from Gemany. Though maybe I loved it because i had an overpriced serving on draft at Churchkey.

Rapp and Cigar City also make very good ones that are draft only if you're ever in the Tampa area.

what, did you go to beer college, or something?

had grapefruit sculpin for the first time.